Through the Woods - Tapa dura

Beautiful, beguiling and thrillingly eerie. (MICHEL FABER)

Stunning, magical. Hauntingly gothic, it made me feel like a child again, reading Grimm fairy tales. (JANE HARRIS)

Mesmerizes and inspires; a Victorian gothic playground haunted by Mary Shelley & Edward Gorey, awash in the dream-like haze of Odilon Redon, and composed with the poetic elegance of Ukiyo-e. I loved it. (CRAIG THOMPSON)

'A wonderful new collection by the Canadian comic artist and writer Emily Carroll. As Craig Thompson (Blankets, Habibi) has already pointed out, Carroll's talent is immense: the mood of these stories is Brothers Grimm by way of Patricia Highsmith or Stephen King, while her drawings, so fluidly lavish and atmospheric, seem to channel Edward Gorey.' (Rachel Cooke Observer, Graphic Novel of the Month)

'A graphic debut that blends the gothic strangeness of Tim Burton with the macabre illustrations of Edward Gorey to create a wonderfully chilling collection of tales ... Eschewing neat endings, Carroll leaves lingering questions: how much is real and how much is imagination? ... Her eerie tales will haunt you.' (Financial Times)

'The gothic tradition is alive, or perhaps splendidly undead, in Emily Carroll's chilling period folktales Through the Woods. Particularly effective is how Carroll insinuates her handwritten narration within her elegant page designs ... Carroll knows when to shock on the turn of a page and when to leave her horrors lurking.' (Paul Gravett Independent)

'Properly terrifying ... revenge and comeuppance are at the centre of these stories, as ghosts, monsters and demons seek to manipulate ordinary people, folk who have allowed themselves to get involved in unspeakable evil, and to hell with the consequences. Carroll delivers all of this with an understated melancholy and a creeping dread, the narrative bursting into flashes of bloody terror at just the right moment, and she shows the perfect pacing and narrative skill of an accomplished storyteller.' (Doug Johnstone, Big Issue)

Carroll has a mainline to the reader's psychic pressure points, the kind of fears and phobias that go all the way back to the cave. She also has the confidence to let her images do the work when it best serves the story ... [She] might have made her name online, but Through the Woods is a powerful argument for the physical book as fetish object. It's a beautiful artefact, confidently written and lavishly designed. Just don't bring it to bed. (Peter Murphy Irish Times)

Outstanding ... Carroll uses a combination of the rhythmic language of fairy tale and a clear and cartoony art style to make the book's moments of horror genuinely unnerving. (QUADRAPHEME)

'Like all the best Grimm fairy tales, Carroll conjures visions of monsters and terrors that lurk in the darkness and haunt our dreams, bringing them to life with her sinister yet stunning illustrations ... Through The Woods looks and feels like a modern day collector's item. It's a book that should be looked after and treasured, to be brought out on cold winter nights and read by the fire with a mug of steaming hot chocolate. It's a beautifully crafted and poetic book that shows off Carroll's skill as both an artist and a storyteller.' (Culture Fly)

This is a fantastically dark and timeless graphic debut, for fans of Grimm Tales, The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy and the works of Neil Gaiman. 'It came from the woods. Most strange things do.' Five mysterious, spine-tingling stories follow journeys into (and out of?) the eerie abyss. These chilling tales spring from the macabre imagination of acclaimed and award-winning comic creator Emily Carroll. Come take a walk in the woods and see what awaits you there...